An entrepreneur who revolutionized the automobile business decides he now needs to change how the world thinks, so he buys a media property to use as a megaphone. His rants validate many people’s worst impulses while also encouraging enemies of democracy around the world. This sounds like Elon Musk and his social media site X…
With its horse-trodden roads, endless fields of almond blossoms and cowboy heritage, the 20,000 person town of Oakdale, Calif., fits the American West of imagination. And for decades, its media diet was classically all-American, too. Nightly news broadcasts played on living room televisions. Copies of local newspapers lined doorsteps on Sunday mornings. The town even…
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday accused Meta of creating a monopoly that squelched competition by buying start-ups that stood in its way, kicking off a landmark antitrust trial that could dismantle a social media empire that has transformed how the world connects online. In a packed courtroom in the U.S. District Court of the…
Soon after Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004, the social network skyrocketed in popularity. Roughly a decade later, the company experienced another round of explosive growth after buying its smaller rivals Instagram and WhatsApp, cementing its place in social media. On Monday, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court…
We’re in a protein craze, and it’s hard to ignore. Walk into any grocery store and you’ll find rows of protein-fortified energy bars, breakfast cereals, baked goods, snacks, even sports drinks. And on social media, influencers — many with medical or scientific degrees in their bios — claim that most people are woefully deficient. “Ladies,…
Robert W. McChesney, an influential left-leaning media critic who argued that corporate ownership was bad for American journalism and that Silicon Valley billionaires who dominated online information were a threat to democracy, died on March 25, at his home in Madison, Wis. He was 72. The cause was glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, his wife,…
For decades, Larry Ellison reveled in being the Silicon Valley executive who really knew how to have a good time. He spent as much as $200 million building a Japanese-inspired imperial villa near Palo Alto, Calif., bought the sixth-largest Hawaiian island and dated and married and divorced with never-ending zeal. Few paid much attention to…
April 1 always seems to begin with social media users reminding everyone that it’s April Fools’ Day. At this point, do we really need a reminder? Brands and celebrities give it a go every year, often with extremely elaborate posts that fool almost no one. From truly outlandish ideas, like the French embassy claiming the…
Earlier this year, I was thumbing through Facebook Marketplace when I came across a “fire piano” for sale. I clicked the listing expecting that “fire” meant “cool,” but found something far more literal: a pyrotechnic piano, MacGyvered to spit flames from its top whenever a player tickled the keys. In the brief description that accompanied…
Have you been spending too many hours on your social feeds feeling anxious, combative or just plain unproductive? Just as limiting exposure to social media has been recommended for children’s mental health, many adults may also benefit. Even if you aren’t ready for a full digital detox (where you severely reduce your smartphone use or…
